I'm thinking on using an old PC as Arduino to very low latency and very high data demand application. I want to program the old PC using another PC using the Arduino IDE. I would like to know how to set up the old PC so that it can be programmed as if it were an Arduino board. Additionally, I want to minimize its operating system, potentially using an operating system that emulates an Arduino. Is this possible using an Linux distro like Buildroot and QEMU.
Not. Going. To. Happen.
Move on.
None of my old PCs have GPIOs, SPI or I2C interfaces, or ADCs.
If it were possible, what would you do with this arduino_PC?
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If you are very good and did all the work you could but
it would not be worth it.
If you can get a DOS like DRDOS running, that would be a big start since DRDOS/MSDOS/PCDOS let your code Own The Machine including parallel port (the pre-Winblows Robot Port) and Serial + Midi/Game port that does cheap 8-bit ADC. DOD gives you disk io and little else, perfect for many jobs.
While it can be Arduino-like, you would need to write an emulator to run Arduino code, which won't be worth it.
Connect an SD to Arduino and get huge storage.
Most important question: why?
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Simulate the Arduino.
Could you give more details of this application?
As others have said, PCs really aren't great for the kinds of things Arduinos are used for - interacting with physical devices (GPIO, I2C, SPI, ADC, DAC, etc).
A Raspberry Pi (or similar) could be more suitable ... ?
Why?
We do that with Arduinos because they aren't suitable to run compilers & IDEs.
But a PC is perfectly capable of natively running compilers, IDEs, etc. As is Raspberry Pi et al.
But Buildroot isn't a distro - it is, "a tool to generate embedded Linux systems".
Again, it seems that a Raspberry Pi (or similar) would give you that?
The goal is to use the processing power of an PC (let's use as an example a i9) in any electronic application that needs very high CPU usage in a very generic way. Please can explain how to achieve this goal in a very generic way in a form that anyone can decide how to achieve to the goal in the particular case.
I just want to program al the system out of the old PC to save processing power. And I like Arduino-IDE.
Ok Buildroot is not a Linux distro .
I'm in doubt if raspberry pi is sufficient.
I'll be synthetic: No, you can't program a PC with the Arduino IDE simply because it's not a microcontroller.
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The usual and by far simplest approach is to have the Arduino send data to a PC for processing.
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I'll be synthetic: No, you can't program a PC with the Arduino IDE simply because it's not a microcontroller.
Very nice answer yes
The usual and by far simplest approach is to have the Arduino send data to a PC for processing.
But there is an Linux done of is possible compile an Linux to do that, and save cpu for the data we need to process?
Its possible to add this interfaces.
A linux computer can do anything that a Windows computer can do, but I don't know for sure what your question means. Can you try to explain in clearer English?
You are correct.
Latency is usually related to multitasking. Linux, Windows and OS X, are ALWAYS multitasking even when you're running one application. A microcontroller without an operating system can usually have lower latency, especially if you don't need to multitask.
You can probably use a computer as a "dedicated programmable controller" if you have the I/O that you need but it wouldn't make much sense to emulate an Arduino in hardware or to attempt to run Arduino code (which would require a custom compiler).
But that is exactly what PCs do anyhow.
There's a huge range of native PC development languages & tools (compilers, IDEs, etc).
Of course, code developed on one PC can be run on another - you create a .exe file and run it wherever you like.
We still have no idea what you actually want to do - so no way to tell whether or not any given spec or device will be "sufficient".
I have been using BeagleBones that have an OS running on one CPU (Linux) and, as in the case of the BeagleBone Black, has 2 independently running microcontrollers. The IDE on the BBB (BeagleBone Black) can be used to program the 2 microcontrollers.
You're not giving us enough clear detail to help you, but don't have the expertise to do it yourself. I wouldn't recommend you try what you have proposed. I'd go with something like this myself.
If you need Lots of computing power , some interfaces and GPIO, you should just go with a SBC. Or a FPGA? Or a really powerful MCU.
I'm asking for some Linux that I can install on a computer just to auxiliary the processing of an Arduino.